That's all good, until you get stuck in the right seat for 5 years or more due to a downturn in the industry....

Ask the Mesa guys how that's working out for them...

 

Find a decent gig in Alaska and have fun commuting 2 weeks on 2 weeks off...

Hagelands, Yute, Bering Air, Grant, PenAir (not quite as nice but ok)... sheesh, is that all that's left?

 

x2.

FYI, you can always apply to Colgan and do my old job. I think they're still hiring. I once flew 737s for Continental and made a whopping $28k/year. But that was too expensive, so I got furloughed. Now, about 35% of the routes I once flew are operated by Colgan and flown by pilots who are more than willing to throw themselves at $18k/year jobs because they think that some day they'll make it to a mainline job.

Regional flying used to be an honorable way to build time and make it to the mainline. Today, even regional airlines are undercutting themselves and finding ways to pay pilots even less (gojets, Colgan). So people were willing to accept horrid pay and QOL because they could upgrade to Captain in months, and build enough time to get hired by a major airline in just a few years. That's not the way it works any more. It's possible that you could be "stuck" at your regional airline for decades.

It's completely backwards from 10 years ago. A ton of mainline flying has been outsourced to regionals. United airlines used to have over 10,000 pilots and now it's about 5,000 + thousands of RJs. The sad thing is that regional pay never grew along with the size of aircraft being operated - we have 70-90 seat RJs flying transcon routes at 1990s era B1900 pay rates. And there's no shortage of people willing to fly larger jets for less money.

So like I said, good luck in this industry.

 

My original post was sarcasm.

FWIW I know a thing or two about being stuck for several years, but you didn't have to go to Mesa for that to happen this time. I chose the regional that I would get paid the most in the first 3 years of employment, its still a pittance but on the other hand we do actual regional flying - none of that half way across the country for 50 bucks.

 

I think you mean ExpressJet. Unless you used to fly your 737 in BPT and CLL.

I know, I know...it is easy to blame your troubles on the turbo prop airlines, not the 50 seat RJ's with the 3+ hour block times.

Keep living in your fantasy world

 

Go fly cargo for ameriflight, air cargo carriers, subair...you'll make more money than a regional FO, get PIC time, have every weekend and every holiday off. Your schedule is predictable until you quit, and you can plan every day until you turn in your letter of resignation. If you do decide to stay there for the rest of your life, 50K isn't bad. You'll be home every day with 12+ hours of rest, see the same guys and become great friends with them, and build good contacts.

 

Go with one that has a future and is growing like Republic airlines. Airlines are either growing, stagnating or shrinking. Skywest isn´t unionized so they keep being hosed on their work rules, Eagle has a 10 year upgrade and XJet is trapped in a dying aircraft, the 50 seat RJ. Republic is growing. The only thing stopping them at the moment from buying more aircraft is most airlines have adequate capacity or too much capacity. Once they begin parking their older aircraft, they´ll begin looking for partners to pick up the market share. These partners will need to provide a modern, economical and reliable service. Republic fits the bill.

 

Sure, if you want to work for sub-par wages, sub-par work rules, and want many other pilots to feel like you are part of the problem. Just look at airline profiles, compare, and judge for yourself. If something doesn't change, the jet operated regionals are going to have a program like gulfstraem.

 

It's not our work rules, those haven't change and to date the company hasn't forced me to do anything that wasn't agreed upon, it's our benefits that's slowly eroding. You know……… it’s the entire “boiling the frog” scenario.

And I don't recommend working for RAH. They're the second coming of US (US vs AW / F9 vs MEH vs RAH) and AA (AA vs TWA) as far as labor issues/relations.

 

Growing? The CRJ200's were removed from service, the CAL contract will be expiring soon, and the DAL contracts as well. Bedford is trying to change the game plan because he knows the gravy train 'Fee for Departure' contracts are done. I think the thing that's stopping RAH from buying more aircraft is that the business plan is changing. The operation is most likely not doing well, as it will take quite a bit of $$$ just to intergrate the operations. There's no room for growth, and it's more likely the operation will shrink over the next 10 years.

RAH is going to get all they can handle in MKE from Airtran, and SWA is giving UAL a hard time in DEN. How do you think RAH is going to handle SWA if UAL is duking it out? I think that when other airlines start parking older airplanes, they'll replace them with new ones. Look at UAL. They just ordered a bunch of new airplanes. Continental has made their fleet younger recently. UsAir is swapping old Airbus out for new ones. Airtran is taking more 737's. American is taking more 737's. Regional contracts are expiring, and DAL just cancelled their Codeshare Agreement with RAH Midwest Operation.

RAH has a lot of hills to climb.